Aaron Lemon-Strauss, the College Board’s executive director of assessment prep programs, was joined by a venerable panel of practitioners to provide insight into strategies to help underrepresented students succeed. Anne DeLuca, associate vice chancellor for admissions & enrollment at University of California, Berkeley; Steve Fisk, principal of North Central High School in Washington state; and Michael McCormick, superintendent of California's Val Verde Unified School District, highlighted innovative yet simple ways to get all students on the path to college

This year, students preparing for college will have a new tool at their fingertips — a suite of online, mobile-friendly platforms where they can store and curate the work they’re most proud of, build a college search list, keep track of their college application materials, and get advice from their counselors and trusted mentors. These resources come from the Coalition for Access, Affordability, and Success (CAAS), a diverse group of 90+ colleges and universities that are committed to providing college access to students of all backgrounds.

It was standing-room only at today’s Midwestern Regional Forum session on prior-prior year and financial aid. A remarkably even cross-section of counselors, financial aid professionals, and admission officers gathered to hear colleagues discuss the implementation strategy for prior-prior year and its potential challenges over the next several months.

When Dr. Terrell Strayhorn took the stage to open the 2016 Midwestern Regional Forum, he expressed some lofty goals: to inform, inspire, and encourage the audience to take action. To that end, he suggested that this may be the right time not only to ask new questions, but to revisit the answers to old questions and see if they still make sense when it comes to effecting change in higher education.

At Forum 2015 in Washington DC, the College Board hosted a wide line-up of exemplary leaders who work daily to increase equity, access, and success in education. We also heard from inspiring students about which factors most affected their college preparatory experience. If you were unable to attend Forum, or want to relive a talk through sharing it with your colleagues and students, please check out the links below:

Michael Sorrell, President of Paul Quinn College and College Board Trustee was featured in an article on PBS.org, produced by the Hechinger Report about his work at Paul Quinn College, transforming the institution and bringing it back from the financial brink.

Last November marked the 25th anniversary of Native American Heritage Month. This yearly celebration provides a platform for Native Americans throughout the U.S. to share their culture and traditions. In recognition of Native American Heritage Month, we’re highlighting two professional programs at the College Board that focus on supporting Native American student success.

On December 2, the College Board's Board of Trustees unanimously decided that CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE will move to accept prior-prior year income information. This means that beginning with the 2017-18 financial aid cycle, PROFILE, the Institutional Need Analysis System (INAS), Institutional Methodology (IM), and the FAFSA, will all use prior-prior year tax information as the basis for assessing a family’s financial need.